Communication Error (Eremin)

Chapter Twenty • Anticipation

    "When are you going back to your place?" Mikasa asked Armin out of the blue, breaking the long-lasting silence, but, thankfully, not disturbing Armin's thoughts.
    "I don't know. Whenever, I guess." He lifted his chin a little. "My stuff is still in Eren's room, though, so . . ."
    "That won't be a problem," Mikasa assured. "I have stuff to finish later anyway.
"Your grandfather didn't seem to be too rushed into getting you back."
    "Oh, okay. That's good."
    "Yeah, and he . . . He . . . Uh . . ." She paused. "What was I saying?"
    "How am I supposed to know?" he teased.
    Mikasa flashed him a goodnatured glare, then looked at her feet as she walked beside him.
    A few minutes later, they stepped up to the front porch that they left some time ago. From what Armin observed, the sun had been in the middle of the sky for only a few minutes, and the midday heat had been beating down on his head and neck. Even in colder weather, the sun was miserable to be under.
    After walking up to the front door, Mikasa paused.
    "What's up?"
    "I forgot to grab my set of keys before we left." She grumbled quietly, then took a step forward and knocked on the door, ringing the bell shortly after.
    It didn't take long for Carla to answer the door and greet them with an undertone of surprise. "Well hi!
"You didn't grab your keys, hm?" she asked, looking at Mikasa.
    "We left spontaneously. It slipped my mind."
    She stepped away as the two kids walked inside, only to step back where she had been to lock the door.
    "Eren asked me where you both were," she explained. "He's in the kitchen right now."
    "Okay."
    "Thank you." Armin's excitement flooded back to him. He was again left to anticipate the confrontation he would make the next day. The feeling of excitement upset his stomach, as if it hadn't settled right. But he kept his air, and subsided the uneasiness for the time being. He decided those feelings were to be dealt with tomorrow.
    Mikasa was heading upstairs and making her way to her room.
    Carla caught Armin's attention as she was walking by. "Do you know when you're going home?"
    "Oh, no ma'am. My grandfather didn't give me a time to be home. I can go if you would like, though," he offered.
    "No, no! Stay as long as you like. I was just hoping we weren't holding you hostage."
    Armin smiled as she did. "Thank you. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."
    "Alright. That's good." She pat his shoulder and headed to another room.
When Armin turned back around, he took a couple steps toward the staircase, then grabbed the rail, about to head up.
Eren leaned over and curiously peered at him through the rails.
Armin saw him in the corner of his eye and turned to look at him. "Oh!" he exclaimed quietly to himself. "I thought you were upstairs for some reason," he signed.
"No, I was in the kitchen."
"Yeah." The corners of Armin's mouth turned up in a shy smile. "Your mom told me. Again, I forgot."
The following moment between them was a bit awkward. Yet Eren seemed to be expecting something from Armin, as if he didn't finish a sentence.
Armin was a bit uncomfortable. "Yes?" he finally urged.
"Where did you guys go?" he casually asked.
"Nowhere specifically. We just walked."
"Okay."
"Uh . . ." Armin mumbled. "Did you want something?" he signed hesitantly.
Eren blinked. "Yes." He pointed upstairs and didn't hesitate to pass up Armin on the stairs, quickly disappearing behind the wall to get, as Armin assumed, to his room.
Armin furrowed his eyebrows for a second and decided to follow Eren to his room.
In the room, Eren plopped himself down on his bean bag chair after seeing Armin enter.
He picked up his phone and scanned it for a second, then turned it off and dropped it on his stomach.
"Do you like me?" Eren asked Armin after they were both situated.
"What?"
"Do you like me?"
Armin looked at him in confusion. "Yes, of course."
"Really?"
"Yes, really."
Eren didn't seem convinced.
"Why do you ask?" Armin leaned forward a little.
"You don't act like it," he stated bluntly.
Armin was obviously a bit offended.
"You used to like me, way back when." He sunk back into the bean bag.
"I was actually going to talk to you tomorrow," Armin told him after taking a minute to collect himself. "I was talking to Mikasa, and she told me I've been avoiding you. She didn't appreciate it. She told me you especially didn't appreciate it. I'm sorry.
"I was trying not to leave her out. I felt bad for her because I thought I spent too much time with you when we were all together."
He paused again, blinking. "I was waiting to tell you these things tomorrow, but as you can tell, that isn't going to happen."
Eren was still. His eyes had shifted to something else, and he looked distracted, though he wasn't ignoring Armin.
Armin kept still as well, waiting for Eren to either say something or give him the opportunity to do so.
But that opportunity did not come. Eren made no reply, either. However it was apparent he was thinking of something.
His eyes were avoiding Armin purposely. His expression changed a lot. It made Armin anxious.
As Armin's anxiety finally began to upset his stomach, Eren looked right at him.
"How much? How much do you like me?" he asked.
Armin's eyes expressed a bit of confusion. "You're one of my closest friends. You and Mikasa."
Eren didn't seem very pleased. "No. Leave Mikasa out of this. How much do you like me?"
"I told you you're one of my closest friends."
Still, Eren wasn't satisfied. He seemed upset by the responses he was getting, if not frustrated. He wrinkled his nose a little and rubbed his eye, looking away from Armin again.
Armin was left to feel like he said something wrong, which brought back the uneasiness from a minute ago. He eyed Eren in anticipation, since that's really all he could do in that moment.
Eren sighed, leaving his had on his face after rubbing his eye again. "Armin." He pursed his lips. "I don't believe that you like me that much anymore. I get it. I get what you said. But that's not . . . It.
"You mean a lot to me. Too much, if I can be frank with you." He took a second to continue. "Aside from Mikasa, you're the only person that's been okay with learning to talk to me. Even with that, Mikasa kinda had to learn, since she lives with me.
"Even my own brother wouldn't learn to talk to me, if that even means anything."
Armin squirmed a little in his seat and decided to slide off the bed and sit on the floor, leaning against it. He looked at Eren again before he continued on.
"I wanted to get closer to you, but then you started avoiding me all the time. I know you like her more now, that's fine, but try harder to like me too."
"It's not that," Armin put in.
Eren didn't seem to catch what Armin said. He immediately stated, "Scratch that, actually. It's not fine. Not at all." He closed his eyes and turned his head.
"Wh . . . Of course it's not." Armin sighed slowly. "That's the thing. I don't like her more than you."
"Then what? You like us both equally?
"If you say yes to that I'm going to lose it."
"Why? Is there something wrong with that?" Armin asked, getting a buzz of frustration.
"Yes! Very wrong!" Eren's eyes were widened.
Armin was hesitant to ask why. He had a feeling he knew why, but at the same time he was suspicious about his own assumptions. After all, look at what assuming did to him last time. Cautiously, he did ask Eren why.
"Because it all feels so one-sided!" he immediately informed.
"What? What feels one-sided?"
Eren sat up intently and looked Armin directly in the eyes. He, too, seemed hesitant now, but the alluring side of his dillema was quite overpowering him. He lifted his hand to sign to him, but put it back down, only to put it back up slowly and say, "Our relationship."
It took a moment, but Armin did indeed process what Eren said. He was right, and now he was certain. But still he didn't know what to say.
Eren must've translated this as Armin being confused, because he seemed slightly disappointed, then he clarified what he meant.
"I like you a lot, Armin. In a different way than you seem to like me."